Our destinations in the media September 5, 2014: The Style and Beauty Doctor - "What Happens when a Beauty Blogger Roughs it in the Adirondacks" ROOST hosted NYC's Danielle Gray and her photographer to familiarize them with the Adirondacks - and they were pleased to learn that they wouldn't likely encounter bears while hiking Owl's Head... :) READ THE ARTICLE

Lake Placid, adirondacks usa - The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) is pleased to announce the launch of adirondacksusa.com, a user-controlled Virtual Guide to the Adirondack Park in Upstate New York. The Adirondack Park is a unique patchwork of private and public lands that covers over 6 million acres of New York State, and contains more than 2,000 miles of marked hiking trails, 3,000 lakes and ponds and 1,200 miles of rivers fed by 30,000 miles of brooks and streams. The new site contains a series of interactive 360-degree views from various locations throughout the Park, conveying its scenic beauty and grand scale via stunning imagery. Clickable links will transport visitors from sweeping vistas at the top of an Adirondack High Peak to the deck of a boat on the middle of a lake, to the interiors of art galleries and businesses. New 360-degree “spins” will be added on a continual basis to enhance the consumer experience and highlight the unique juxtaposition of the region’s communities set in the midst of the Adirondack forest preserve. A Google Maps icon is located at the bottom of each 360-degree “spin”, which users can click to launch the map interface. Those images with an information icon will link to details about that location on the appropriate destination website. “Digital marketing trends continue to point toward the increasing importance of visual media,” said Carol Joannette, ROOST VP of Marketing. “These 360-degree images, while they certainly can’t replicate the real thing, are a perfect way to showcase our gorgeous Adirondack product to potential visitors.” “Do we need yet another website about the Adirondacks? Not necessarily,” said James McKenna, ROOST CEO. “But adirondacksusa.com is not bound by the invisible municipal and political boundaries that can confuse the traveling public; it’s representative of everything inside the Blue Line that defines the Adirondack Park. It is a visual exploration of the park that contains almost no descriptive copy, so it won’t be in competition with the existing regional destination websites for search engine ranking; rather, its purpose is to drive traffic to those sites.” For more information about adirondacksusa.com and opportunities to add businesses and new geographic locations to the site, visit the site’s sales page. Followers of the site’s social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will be notified as new “spins” are added. ROOST is a 501(c)6 nonprofit corporation that is responsible for promoting the Schroon Lake Region, Lake Champlain Region, Whiteface Region, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid/High Peaks, Tupper Lake and Hamilton County regions of the Adirondacks to the traveling public.They operate a main office in Lake Placid and one in Crown Point. To learn more about the organization, visit www.ROOSTAdk.com. adirondacksusa.com

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – No less than eight United States Olympic luge team members will be in action on Friday, Sept. 19, in the USA Luge Start Championship. The team’s annual on-ice competition will be held on the refrigerated training ramps at team headquarters. The event, to be held at 57 Church Street in Lake Placid, tests luge racers in the all-important explosion off the start handles which begins all luge races. Cash prizes will be at stake. Start time is 6 PM and the public is invited to attend. Athletes expected to compete include Erin Hamlin, Julia Clukey, Chris Mazder, Tucker West, Aidan Kelly, Joe Mortensen and Riley Stohr. “The athletes spend the summer months getting physically stronger at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and getting faster on our ramps,” said USA Luge Sport Program Director Mark Grimmette. “This event gives them and the coaching staff a gauge as to where they are in their pre-season preparation.” Upon completion of this event, a number of national team athletes will start eyeing Lillehammer, Norway for the first full-length, on ice sliding of the fall season. That camp will be held from Oct. 1-12 on the 1994 Olympic track. Thereafter, the team will begin training on the demanding course at Mount Van Hoevenberg, outside Lake Placid, when the course opens in mid-October. The layout is the site of a World Cup meet Dec. 5-6 which will bring many of the international stars of the Sochi Winter Games to Lake Placid. The Norton National Championships will be held Nov. 1-2 in Lake Placid. For more information, visit usaluge.org.

Our destinations in the media September 8, 2014: Biker Nation - "Touring the Six Million Acre Motorcycle Friendly Park that Never Closes" ROOST hosted Canadian writers Liz Palmer and Robert Roland for a motorcycle trip through the Adirondacks. They kept base camp in Lake Placid, but visited most of our other regions as well. Businesses mentioned include: Whiteface Lodge, KANU restaurant, the Adirondack Museum, Fort Ticonderoga and Natural Stone Bridges and Caves. READ THE ARTICLE

Our destinations in the media September 10, 2014: Thrillist - "The 10 most beautiful towns in America during fall" Thrillist features Lake Placid as the second most beautiful fall town in the country, using a ROOST photo. READ THE ARTICLE